Competition

Congratulations to Denise Francis! She is the lucky winner of the Alcatel Onetouch Idol Alpha smartphone. I went to deliver Denise’s prize over the weekend and it was great to meet some of our fans.

The BWB team wants to thank Denise and all of our avid readers for the great support you have given us! We grow as a site everyday and hopefully will one day become the number one go-to website for all your tech news and reviews. (more…)

Alcatel has been dabbling in the cell phone market for many a year and up till now they were more known for lower-end yet indisputably reliable phones. The Idol Alpha thrusts Alcatel into the already heated battle of the smartphone war (read our full review here).

We think it is a great find, especially for its price. Following the success of our previous competition, we’ve decided to give away another Alcatel flagship to our readers (see the rules below), in partnership with Alcatel SA. (more…)

It seems that we are one step closer to colonizing Mars – well, at least sort of.

The much debated, sometimes praised, sometimes controversy stricken Mars One project has narrowed down the search for Mars’ first human colonists to a mere 100 people. Some of which will have the opportunity to make history and (perhaps) change the course of mankind forever.

In case you have no idea what I’m talking about, Mars One is a dutch non-profit organization that is planning on sending four people to Mars to live there for the rest of their lives. And yes, that means that they will die there, too.

Surprisingly enough, more than 200 000 people applied for the ‘coveted’ position, which opened for applications in 2013. (more…)

Nowadays, every major company seems to be involved with space and space exploration in some way or another. The out-of-the-universe field that was once only reserved for the likes of NASA, has now captured the imagination of (mostly tech) companies worldwide.

There is Elon Musk’s SpaceX programme, Richard Branson and Virgin Galactic and of course, the mighty Google.

As you may of heard, Google has recently launched the Google Lunar XPrize – a sort of post Cold War space race competition that challenges different teams from around the world to land a spacecraft on the moon.

18 private teams from all four corners of the Earth will go head-to-head in a bid to be the first to land a spacecraft on the moon. However, the objective is not to simply land the spacecraft on the moon, but to also let it roam for 500 meters as well as being able to send data and images back to Earth.

The winning team will then receive a grand prize of a whopping $20 million. (more…)

This year’s Startup Knight competition was truly fierce with various wonderful startups that once again proved the immense talent we have in South Africa.

However, as competitions go, there can only be one winner and on Saturday, November 8th, the winners of this year’s competition were announced.

The final leg of the competition was split over two days. All finalists (8 Startups and 8 Concepts) were required to attend an intensive mentoring session on Friday, 7 November. The mentors comprised of successful tech entrepreneurs who generously committed their energy to coach the finalists. The results of the mentoring were realised on the Saturday when the finalists had to give their all as they delivered their final pitches to the judging panel.

After two adrenalin filled days it was time for the results and prize giving at a cocktail function held at the Radisson Blu in Granger Bay that Saturday evening. The finalists, judges, and mentors were joined by an audience of their partners and well known industry personalities.

Tiger Bytes won in the startup phase category with their Vula Application. Vula is an online learning tool used by staff and students at the University of Cape Town. Tiger Bytes won a prize to the value of R250,000 (R150,000 for software development and R100,000 for public relations and go-to-market efforts.)

1st Runner-up, MediaBox, boasts a hardware device that is similar to the Apple TV, but runs on Android and introduces 3G integration along with more input sources. Their R50,000 prize is dedicated to public relations and software development. (more…)

Many small start-ups have one massive problem in common – they can’t necessarily get their company “on the map”. Mapped in Cape Town is an innovative, yet simple map that allows tech start-ups to see where their peers are based.

Over the past few years, the Mother City has been strategically changing its identity into the Digital City, with edgy tech start-up entrepreneurs from all over the world jumping at the opportunity to live and work in Cape Town. (more…)